The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1887-07-27
AN APPALLING ACCIDENT.
An Express Train Runs Into a Body Of Work
men, Killing Twelve Or Fifteen of Them and
WoundIns Many C;hess-The Track Covered
with Mansied Men and Blood.

a New York dispatch Of Thursday says
frightful accident took place that morn
ing on the Erie Railroad, between Allen
dale and Hohokus. Overa dozen mangled
bodies on the track attested the neglect OF
some one who should have given warning.
4 gang of Italian laborerS were blasting
on the railroad near q sharp curve about
three quarters of q mile above dohokus.
The Chicago Express, which was due the
hour before, had not arrived. and 'hese
men, whose foreman should have given q
warning whistle when the train was ap-
preaching the curve, were busy at work
unconscious of the terrible fate IN store for
them. The Express dashed through the
gang, killing y or Is and woundins many
others. The shrieks of the victims were
heartren6ing. and when the train passed
the track presented the Sickening sight OF
being covered with mangle6 bodies, the
rails being spattered with blood, and ragged
flesh ard detached limbs being scattered IN
all directions. Some Of the bodies were
mutilated beyond description and crushed
out of all semblance of humanity. Death
must have come to most of the victims IN
stantly. but some appeared to be yet qulver-
lug dlu IIIc SUcIoS ,s"t'y "-Ae-h 'AAS NA-
slowed-up.
Another account Of the terrible accident
SAYS that about 100 Italians were at work
on the road bed when the train came along,
and the workmen stepped on the other
track to allow it to pass, but just then the
Chicago express thundered down on them
at the rate of so miles an hour and literally
moved its way through struggling untor-
tunates right and left, tearing legs and
arms and heads off and grinding flesh into
the road bed for 200 or 800 feet. SO fierce
was the shock that although the engine
struck nothing but human beings, the pow.
erful cowcatcher was torn, twisted and
broken into pieces Some Of the men were
crowded against the rocks in a very narrow
space. The engineer Of the express train
reversed his engine and was coming to q
stop when the passengers told him to 60
ahead. Looking back, they saw the unin-
,iured Italians acting like maniacs. They
were yelling, gesticulating and tearing their
clothes. Some were kneehng and others
dashing about the middle of the ghastly
pile of mangled bodies. When they saw
the train stopping they made rush for 1t,
and had they reached it they undoubtedly
would have murdered the engineer, fireman
and conductor.
Mr.. March, the padrone who supplies
the Erie Railroad Company with its Italian
laborers, arrived early at Paterson. He
identified the men by means of their mum,
bers, which are written on slips and carried
by the men IN little tin boxes. Six or
seven hundred dollars was found on the
persons of the dead men and was taken by
March to be handed to the Italian Consul
at New York, in trust for their relatives.
March's action was the source of indigna,
ton to the other Italians, who wanted to
take charge of the money themselves.
They would have mobbed him but Tor the
timely interference Of two policemen.